Movie took 14 years and contributions by 75,000 individual donors to hit the screen

A film based on the horrors experienced by comfort women in Japanese military brothels during World War II, whose doubtful commercial appeal meant it took 14 years and the contributions of 75,000 individual donors to complete, is top of the box office in South Korea.

Cho Jung-rae, who directed Spirits' Homecoming, was inspired in 2002 to make the film when he saw the drawing Burning Women, made during a therapy session at a shelter for elderly former comfort women by Kang Il-chul, who said she was taken away by Japanese soldiers when she was 16.